Last weekend Hong Kong Dong celebrated the release of their debut album with an excellent gig at the DOK arena in Ghent.

Their eclectic indie pop thrives the most in a live setting and most songs get a more rock oriented layer. The guitar injections of Geoffrey Burton give the songs a nice edge and his guitar solo in ‘Romance’ makes me which I could go and see them play on a daily basis. The band played a large selections of songs from the album but also threw in some golden oldies like ‘Lesbians Are A Boys Best Friends’ and ‘On a Sunny Day’. They finished the set with a steaming rendition of ZZ Top’s ‘Give me al your Loving’ that left the crowd ecstatic.
Go see them when you have the chance. They’re one of the most entertaining live bands I’ve seen in quite a while.
Video and photos right about here:

]]>https://weaponofbeauty.wordpress.com/2011/12/23/best-of-2011/feed/0weaponofbeautycompanionmeyrinTea Party Tattoohttps://weaponofbeauty.wordpress.com/2011/12/21/tea-party-tattoo/
https://weaponofbeauty.wordpress.com/2011/12/21/tea-party-tattoo/#respondWed, 21 Dec 2011 14:41:31 +0000http://weaponofbeauty.wordpress.com/?p=1250At the moment the term Tea Party brings out all sorts of bad vibes.
But this is the sort of tea party that I do like.
How cool is this tattoo!? (click to enlarge)

It’s no secret that here at Weapon of Beauty HQ we’re big fans of noise rockers The Hickey Underworld.
So the announcement of their second full album is a perfectly valid reason to come out of our hibernation. In true Hickey style the album is mysteriously titled “I’m under the house, I’m dying” and will be released in the Benelux and France in February 2012. Production was once again done by the boys from Das Pop and none other than Dave Sardy (ex-Barkmarket and now producer to the stars) did the mix.

For the past half year the Hickeys have done a series of small club gigs, road testing the new material. Having attended 5 of them the outlines of the new material became quite clear: there are no outlines. The tracks vary from heavy stomping old-school THU, via surprisingly poppy tracks to a 10 minute psychedelic behemoth. This last one is already a live favourite and reminds us of that other 10-minute live favourite and show closer ‘VRMNSMR’. They’re equally compelling and both are some of the most exciting stuff to have been released in the past decade. Yes, it’s thàt good.
The gig at Hasselt’s PLAY festival in October proved that the band are now ready to take it to the next step. The gig was an exciting and intricate mix of new and old material and ranked up there with the best THU gigs I’ve seen (30 and counting).

Want a chance to see for yourself? Check the tour dates below:

10/Feb

Trix

Antwerpen (BE)

11/Feb

Rotown

Rotterdam (NL)

12/Feb

Paradiso

Amsterdam (NL)

17/Feb

Nouveau Casino

Paris (FR)

18/Feb

De Kreun

Kortrijk (BE)

19/Feb

Cactus

Brugge (BE)

22/Feb

AB Club

Brussel (BE)

23/Feb

Het Depot

Leuven (BE)

25/Feb

De Casino

Sint-Niklaas (BE)

26/Feb

Vooruit

Gent (BE)

]]>https://weaponofbeauty.wordpress.com/2011/11/30/the-hickey-underworld-are-under-your-house/feed/1weaponofbeautyTHUTHUGIFOK1Marvellous Jean-Michel Basquiat portraitshttps://weaponofbeauty.wordpress.com/2011/08/18/marvellous-jean-michel-basquiat-portraits/
https://weaponofbeauty.wordpress.com/2011/08/18/marvellous-jean-michel-basquiat-portraits/#commentsThu, 18 Aug 2011 11:19:11 +0000http://weaponofbeauty.wordpress.com/?p=1220After watching the great ‘Jean-Michel Basquiat The Radiant Child‘ documentary, I stumbled upon 3 absolutely great photos of Basquiat, which I wanted to share. All photos turned out to be the work of the same photographer, Lizzie Himmel.

The first time she photographed him was with Andy Warhol (pictured below).

The second time he was alone in his Lafayette Street studio. This particular shoot was for the cover of the New York Times Magazine. The year was 1985 and he was at the height of his career and unfortunately the height of his drug use.
There’s a very particular reason why he’s not wearing any shoes. When Himmel arrived at his studio he was asleep in bed with his girlfriend. Having to also photograph Keith Haring that same day she had no time to waste. With the help of Basquiat’s assistant they got him up, but he was too stoned to function. He kept nodding off so they had no choice, but to dress him. After getting the suit on, Lizzie decided that she had enough of dressing him so she left the shoes off. Three years later he would be dead from a heroin overdose at the age of 27. (story via brooklynmast.com)